Looking back at another sustainable year

When faced with global challenges that severely impact societies and businesses, we need to look at everything we do from an sustainability perspective. Expectations from customers, employees, regulators and investors are on a steep and steady rise, both on how we act as a company and on the solutions we provide. 

Given this, the past year, we have had more focus on sustainable banking than ever. Join us for a tour through our – and the industry’s – most important events.

I am very proud of these achievements, which are the result of dedicated work and constructive discussions with our customers and collaborations partners. Looking ahead, we know what we want to achieve and we have a lot to do. We are eager to take the next steps in our sustainability journey. 
Anders Langworth, Group Head of Sustainable Finance 

Nordea plays an active role in sustainable change for the whole industry

• Together with Nasdaq we created a new tool for comparing the sustainability footprint of our investment portfolios, making it easier for customers to understand the impact of their investments. 
• Nordea Life & Pension invested SEK 50 million into Norrsken Foundation’s new impact fund, Norrsken Venture Capital fund 1 (Norrsken VC ) in June. A fund that invests in so-called impact unicorns – companies that are considered to have the potential to influence at least one billion people positively.
• In August, the Leveraged Finance-team in Large Corporates & Institutions provided the first-ever sustainability-linked leveraged buy-out loan in the Nordics when financing for Trill Impact’s acquisition of Nordomatic.  
• We launched an energy-saving loan in Denmark to further strengthen our sustainable product offering.
• Nordea has, along with 15 other banks and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), developed PACTA for Banks; a tool for measuring the alignment of the banks’ corporate lending portfolios with climate scenarios across a set of key climate-relevant sectors and technologies..
• As an internationally recognized asset manager, we are leading collective engagement initiatives with other investors. Recently, in relation to the construction of the coal plant Vung Ang 2 in Vietnam and in Brazil, demanding an environmental policy that would reduce deforestation and fires in the region. 

Nordea taking lead

• Nordea took an important step to further strengthen its work to track and measure its climate change risks and impacts by joining the industry-led PCAF (Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials). It will support Nordea’s commitment to align its lending and investment portfolio to the climate goals of Paris Agreement.
• Nordea Asset Management has together with 29 other leading asset managers founded the global initiative Net Zero Asset Manager Alliance to support the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner. 
• In September 2019 the United Nations-convened initiative Principles for Responsible  (PRB) was launched and Nordea, as the only Nordic bank, was one of the founding banks. In December the PRB reached 200 signatory banks across the globe, representing 1.7 billion customers. A true milestone for the financial sector. 
• In August Nordea’s Anders Langworth, Head of Group Sustainable Finance, was elected for one of 12 seats at the UNEP FI Banking Board - the new governance body for all member banks which oversees the implementation of the Principles for Responsible Banking and the UNEP FI’s (United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative) overall strategic objective. 
• Nordea Life & Pension’s Head of Sustainability, Peter Sandahl, has been elected to the Steering Committee for PCAF (Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials). 
• We have been selected as a member of IMCA’s  Advisory Council to the Green Bond Principles (GBP) and Social Bond Principles (SBP) Executive Committee for 2020-2021. Nordea was one of 40 organisations elected to the council after a competitive selection process involving market participants and stakeholders around the world. 
• During the last twelve months, Nordea issued new sector guidelines for the agricultural industry, forestry industry, fossil fuel industry, mining industry and real estate industry, as well as a position statement on tax. 

Recognition of our work

• In May, Morningstar stated that Nordea Asset Management was among the top 10 list of best-selling asset managers within sustainable funds.
• Nordea Asset Management won the ‘ESG engagement initiative of the year' prize in the 2020 Sustainable Investment Awards for engaging with the pharmaceutical industry and our efforts to shift the industry towards less pollutive production methods. 
• In September, our funds received high rankings in the responsibility assessment in a responsible investment report by the UN. In the area of strategy and governance, Nordea received the highest rating of A+ and, in all other categories, an A rating - clearly above average - especially in the area of active ownership.